Standard-state entropies and their impact on the potential-dependent apparent activation energy in electrocatalysis

The apparent activation energy,Eapp,is a common measure in thermal catalysis to discuss the activity and limiting steps of catalytic processes on solid-state materials.Recently,the electrocatalysis community adopted the concept of Eappand combined it with the Butler-Volmer theory.Certain observations though,such as potential-dependent fluctuations of Eapp,are yet surprising because they conflict with the proposed linear decrease in Eappwith increasing overpotential.The most common explanation for this finding refers to coverage changes upon alterations in the temperature or the applied electrode potential.In the present contribution,it is demonstrated that the modulation of surface coverages cannot entirely explain potential-dependent oscillations of Eapp,and rather the impact of entropic contributions of the transition states has been overlooked so far.In the case of a nearly constant surface coverage,these entropic contributions can be extracted by a dedicated combination of Tafel plots and temperature-dependent experiments.

Augmented Virtual Stiffness Rendering of a Cable-driven SEA for Human-Robot Interaction

Human-robot interaction(HRI) is fundamental for human-centered robotics, and has been attracting intensive research for more than a decade. The series elastic actuator(SEA) provides inherent compliance, safety and further benefits for HRI, but the introduced elastic element also brings control difficulties. In this paper, we address the stiffness rendering problem for a cable-driven SEA system, to achieve either low stiffness for good transparency or high stiffness bigger than the physical spring constant, and to assess the rendering accuracy with quantified metrics. By taking a velocity-sourced model of the motor, a cascaded velocity-torque-impedance control structure is established. To achieve high fidelity torque control, the 2-DOF(degree of freedom) stabilizing control method together with a compensator has been used to handle the competing requirements on tracking performance, noise and disturbance rejection,and energy optimization in the cable-driven SEA system. The conventional passivity requirement for HRI usually leads to a conservative design of the impedance controller, and the rendered stiffness cannot go higher than the physical spring constant. By adding a phase-lead compensator into the impedance controller,the stiffness rendering capability was augmented with guaranteed relaxed passivity. Extensive simulations and experiments have been performed, and the virtual stiffness has been rendered in the extended range of 0.1 to 2.0 times of the physical spring constant with guaranteed relaxed passivity for physical humanrobot interaction below 5 Hz. Quantified metrics also verified good rendering accuracy.

EXPLORATION OF SUBSTITUTION OF REPEATED MODE SUBSPACES FOR CLOSELY SPACED MODE SUBSPACES

A new quantitative concept is introduced in this paper, which may be used to facilitate the measurement of the controllability of a subspace similar to subspace controllability degree. Then the concrete form of the subspace controllability degree of a flexible structure is derived, and the errors of subspace controllability degree and dynamical response caused by the substitution of a repeated mode subspace for a closely spaced mode subspace are discussed. All the results show that this substitution is rational under some conditions.

Harmoniousness analysis of total amount control of water use

Based on the fundamental principles of total amount control of water use, the harmony theory was used in this study to develop a concept of the degree of harmony of total amount control of water use. Based on this concept, the harmoniousness of total amount control of water use was analyzed in terms of the supply and demand of water resources, water resources management, water use benefits, and water-saving level. An evaluation index system of the degree of harmony of total amount control of water use was established, and a method for calculation of the degree of harmony of total amount control of water use was developed based on the analytic hierarchy process （AHP） and fuzzy comprehensive analysis （FCA） methods. The new evaluation index system was applied to a certain area in Jiangsu Province, China. The degree of harmony of total amount control of water use over this area was calculated for different years. Results indicate that the evaluation index system and calculation method proposed in this study are feasible, and such a harmoniousness analysis can provide scientific references for the strict water resources management system that will be implemented in China in the near future.

STUDY ON CONTROLLABILITY AND OBSERVABILITY FOR THIN PLATE SYSTEM WITH PARAMETER UNCERTAINTY

The controllability and observability analysis of thin plate system with parameter uncertainty is presented using the degree of controllability/observability and the robustness index. It provides a guidance to the design of robust active vibration control for thin plate system.

Robust Stabilizing Regions of Fractional-order PI~λ Controllers for Fractional-order Systems with Time-delays

This study focuses on a graphical approach to determine the robust stabilizing regions of fractional-order PIλ（proportional integration） controllers for fractional-order systems with time-delays. By D-decomposition technique, the existence conditions and calculating method of the real root boundary（RRB） curves, complex root boundary（CRB） curves and infinite root boundary（IRB）lines are investigated for a given stability degree. The robust stabilizing regions in terms of the RRB curves, CRB curves and IRB lines are identified by the proposed criteria in this paper. Finally, two illustrative examples are given to verify the effectiveness of this graphical approach for different stability degrees.